Devastation

We read in our guidebook that there was an 8.2 earthquake down here in
2007, but that really couldn't prepare us for what we saw once we got
here. When you go out on the roof of our 5 story hostel (the hotels
were the first buildings rebuilt in the area), it's nearly impossible
to see a building that doesn't still have damage 3 years later. 70%
of the homes in the area were completely destroyed.

While Pisco doesn't have the dark, dangerous feel of the northern
cities, it's pretty obvious that the people here are pretty beat up.
The US and other countries gave lots of money to help rebuild this
place, but most of it didn't make it to the actual people. Instead,
they've built homes out of bamboo and tarps and whatever scraps of
wood they can find. We're not talking about a few houses, we're
talking about thousands upon thousands of houses. No plumbing. No
running water. 35,000 families that used to have nice adobe homes now
live in plastic.

When we visited the villages, it became really obvious that we weren't
going to be able to provide even a drop in the bucket to help these
people. As we walked from house to house and heard the stories and
saw the homes, people began to argue with each other about who should
get our help. I felt so helpless to alleviate these people's
problems. In fact, the people were so desperate (although they
treated us kindness) that we feared if we brought tools and materials
in that we would probably cause a mob. We didn't think it was very
wise for our small group to work there.

We went in a different direction. Earlier in the day, we met Jimmy.
Along with everyone else, Jimmy lost his house and had begun to
rebuild. Jimmy is the guy who sold us our tour to the islands
yesterday. He looks to be in his 30s, has a wife and 3 young girls
all living in one small room. 5 people. 2 beds. They built a separate
kitchen outside the house and that's about it. After doing some
talking with them, we decided that we are going to be able to move
some walls and doors and build the girls a bedroom in what is
currently the kitchen, build a new kitchen, build a bathroom, and make
a place for Jimmy and his wife in the existing house.

We know that we can't help everyone, but we can definitely help this
family. It's been a long day and we have another few long days of
construction ahead of us. I'll share a few pics of the earthquake. If
you take away some rubble and some power lines, the city pretty much
looks exactly the same.

Oh, we did get to visit the poor man's Galapagos today and see
penguins and sea lions and all that stuff. It was really cool, but
today was about the people.